On a recent weekday afternoon, about 15 people sat in a circle in a light-filled room above the Sutter Health emergency room in San Francisco. Facing one another, they each held a packet containing music and lyrics of songs from the 1960s.
Together, they began singing the Beatles classic, Here Comes the Sun.
Then, they paused. Some needed help turning the page or finding the lyrics. Others hummed while waiting to rejoin the group. No one rushed them. After a moment, they began again.
Once a month at Sutter Health’s Brain Health Center in San Francisco, people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of cognitive decline gather alongside their caregivers, spouses and friends to sing together — part of a growing effort to support patients living with memory loss beyond medication.
In California, the Alzheimer’s Association reports that one in 10 adults age 45 and older experiences confusion or memory loss. Research shows music can help people with conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia as a complement to medical care.
The “Music Mends Minds” sessions at Sutter Health, which are free to join, are led by Pat Ronzone and Joe Debellis, a married musical duo who have performed together since 2009. Ronzone now lives with cognitive decline, and Debellis has watched participants, including his wife, benefit from the singing circles.
“Music is a different circuit from memory,” said Debellis. “People who don’t remember my name are able to take to music, and it seems to be incorporated not just in the speech side of the brain but throughout the whole being.”
He notices something else happen when the group sings together.
“Trying to decide who was memory-impaired and a caregiver, when singing, it’s just not obvious,” said Debellis.
This program that uses music to supplement medical care was the brainchild of cognitive neurologist Dr. Armen Moughamian. With Alzheimer’s, where brain function is lost over time, medications can slow progression of the disease, explained Moughamian, but primarily in early stages. By the time Alzheimer’s reaches its later stages, many patients no longer qualify for medical treatments, making music an approach that can offer relief at any stage of the disease.
“There’s a lot of literature supporting non-medication ways to help patients manage the disease,” Moughamian explained. “And one aspect of that is building community, bringing patients together and using music.”
The goal, he said, is not restoring memory, but rather improving quality of life for people in all stages of cognitive decline.
“When language gets affected, people struggle to communicate, but music can transcend language,” said Moughamian, “It becomes a way of communicating and it calms people.”
And music can help surface memories.
The group was singing King of the Road when Lauri Musumeche, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s three years ago, became overcome with emotion. The melody reminded her of her 98-year-old father, who used to play the harmonica.
“He did play [this song] for me one time, so it makes me want to cry,” she said.
Her friend Kandy Jones drove her from Livermore to attend, and has witnessed music prompting recall outside these sessions.
“I’ll say a phrase from a song and she immediately starts singing it,” Jones said. “It’s a real trigger.”
For Musumeche, the benefit is emotional as much as cognitive.
“It helps me feel good,” she said. “When you have Alzheimer’s, you’re always kind of sad.”
For Jim Hayden, the group helps preserve part of his wife Sandy Noltimier’s identity. She studied vocal performance, sang in a symphony chorus and performed as part of an A capella trio called PMS for decades before developing Alzheimer’s.
“She’s doing what she loves. It’s something she’s still good at,” said Hayden.
Noltimier said she values the absence of judgment and being less self-critical.
“This is a place where I don’t have to feel like someone’s listening too closely or saying I did it wrong,” she explained. “Everybody here has something they’re working through, and that makes it easier.”
Noltimier and Hayden attend together not as caregiver and patient but as partners. The hour gives them a shared activity that Alzheimer’s has not taken away.
“We’re always trying to drown each other out,” laughed Hayden.
By the time the session came to an end, the participants had run through nearly ten songs, clapping and tapping their feet to Puff the Magic Dragon and Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.
And next month, they’ll come back and sing a repertoire of songs reflective of Spring, dust the cobwebs off of another set of lyrics from their youth, and perhaps, unlock significant memories.
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